MK Dons staff have been effectively laid off as the impact of coronavirus continues to take hold of English football.
Sportsmail understands non playing staff have been ‘furloughed’ - which means they are now, effectively, no longer working for the club and are only going to be paid 80 per cent of their wages up to £2,500 per month.
Members of the staff at the hotel adjacent to stadium:MK have also have also be hit with the news.
It comes after Leeds United entered talks with their first-team players about deferring wages as the shutdown of English football continues.
Talks took place on Tuesday between senior players at the club and officials Angus Kinnear and Victor Orta, and the squad are now expected to agree to a temporary cap on their salaries.
It is also likely to extend to manager Marcelo Bielsa and his backroom staff, as reported by the Athletic.
A number of Birmingham City players have also agreed to defer up to 50 per cent of their wages from next month to help ensure all of the club’s non-footballing staff will be paid in full.
Sportsmail has been told that while Pep Clotet’s first-team squad will be paid in full this month, the majority have accepted a deferral for four months starting in April, with the money to be repaid in four instalments when football resumes later in the year.
Gillingham chairman Paul Scally, whose side play in the same division as MK Dons, admitted last week that his club faces a very real threat of folding.
'Assuming we can come to an arrangement with HMRC, not so much defer payments but have a holiday of not paying any HMRC payments for the next three months we can then use that money to keep the staff going,' he told Sky Sports.
'Obviously staff will have to come to arrangements with their own mortgage companies, banks or car loan companies to maybe have a holiday of three months of not paying payments there.
'So, if we can give enough money that staff can buy essentials like food, put petrol in their cars so that they can get around [and] look after their families then I think we can probably last two or three months.
'After that the cash we do have will run out and I don't have any solution past two or three months.'
National League side Barnet have also been forced to put all of their non-playing staff, including their manager, on notice of redundancy following the suspension of football.
Around 60 employees, including 15 academy staff, were told in meetings they are being laid off.
Barnet had already seen attendances fall 50 per cent since their relegation from League Two in 2018 and been further hit by the number of home games they have had postponed this season, attracting lower crowds for the rearranged fixtures.